High Drama Prevails @ Sata Rallye Acores, ERC - 2013 | Jan Kopecky is the New Leader !

After the thunderstorm filled action yesterday, the stages were much better for driving today, although high drama still lurking around the competition.

Overnight leader Robert Kubica lost his top place to Jan Kopecky after SS7, only to roll out on SS11 and even lucky enough to reach service with SS12 cancelled to similar reasons as y'day.

Kubica, who was leading SATA Rallye Açores only to be forced to slow in heavy fog on stage eight, was battling back into contention when he rolled his Citroën DS3 RRC on the Feteiras stage, which was being streamed live on the official ERC website, www.fiaerc.com.

He explains: “We went to a right-hander and I lost the car. The road was very narrow so we clipped a bank. We nearly managed to get it back but the bank was bigger and thicker and unfortunately it pulled us on the side and we rolled. At the end of the stage we managed to fix a bit the wheel and we managed to come back. The roll cage is okay from our point of view. It has been difficult, difficult day starting last stage of first loop when we had a lot of fog. If we manage to get the car sorted out then after that we will see if we carry on.

It was not an issue of visibility, the conditions are very difficult and very difficult for everybody. I was surprised how the car reacted. I was not expecting it. I was not pushing because we had bad luck with the fog at the end of the last stage of the first loop. Even driving at normal speed there was very poor grip in the corner and we lost the car. It was a result of a mistake. When you see the car like this you don’t enjoy it.”

Kubica’s damaged car is currently being repaired in service in Ponta Delgada. The event restarts on Sunday morning with the 20.82 km of Graminhais stage. 

POS	NO	DRIVER CO-DRIVER	ENTRANT CAR		CLASS	TOTAL TIME [PEN]	DIFF 1ST PREV
1	1	Jan KOPECKY (CZE) Pavel DRESLER (CZE)	SKODA MOTORSPORT SKODA FABIA S2000		2	1:05:11.9	-:- -:-
2	2	Craig BREEN (IRL) Paul NAGLE (IRL)	PEUGEOT RALLY ACADEMY PEUGEOT 207 S2000		2	1:05:25.0	+13.1 +13.1
3	8	Bruno MAGALHÃES (PRT)   Nuno DA SILVA (PRT)	PEUGEOT 207 S2000		2	1:05:45.8	+33.9 +20.8
4	6	Ricardo MOURA (PRT) Sancho EIRÓ (PRT)	SKODA FABIA S2000		2	1:05:47.4	+35.5 +1.6
5	10	Bernardo SOUSA (PRT) Hugo MAGALHÃES (PRT)	FORD FIESTA RRC		2	1:05:48.0	+36.1 +0.6